It’s been a whirlwind of events in the last two weeks. The Northwest Derby incited much drama and controversy, and sadly took light away from the football. The Suarez Evra row extended beyond the ban. Never in my viewing history have I ever seen this much extended press coverage from a racism incident.
This whole ordeal is something that will inevitably permeate the pre-match talk of any united liverpool match in the future. People don’t forget. And so that I don’t get carried away by my own emotions when arguing with some Liverpool fan, I want to clarify my position and thoughts now, while its fresh in my mind, so that when I get into an argument in the future, I can speak with clarity, and hopefully understandable logic. Because it is such a sensitive subject for both clubs, I have to be sure I speak on proven facts, and not my own conjecture.
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The Contention: Suarez is an alleged racist. Despite the findings of the FA committee, despite Evra’s claims, despite his known antics (biting people, kicking people, etc), no one has the right to declare him a racist, because we simply do not know what was said that day. Period.
The Facts: he called Evra a “Negro.” We know this by Suarez’s own admission. When asked why he used the word “Negro” to insult Evra, he stated: “I did not insult him. It was just a way of expressing myself. I called him something his teammates at Manchester call him, and even they were surprised by his reaction.”
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Having established the above, now for my position, for both fans.
A) Suarez owes Evra an apology for the snubbing of the extended hand.
That’s basic sportsmanship. As the victim of hearing an offensive word, regardless of whether it was intended to be offensive or not (I cannot emphasize that enough), Evra extended his hand, and Suarez did not shake it. There is no justifying or explaining this. Period. That is 1000% wrong, and the situation is unbelievably backward. If anything, Suarez should had extended his hand and apologized to Evra before the handshake. Suarez simply has no excuse for not shaking a fellow professional’s hand, no less a person he has racially abused (again, intentionally or unintentionally).
And now certain football luminaries come out saying they should scrap the handshake entirely? We should scrap an old-world, gentlemanly tradition observed for over a century in this game, worldwide, so that players like Wayne Bridge and Luis Suarez can be shielded from the fallout? Bollocks. Should we scrap the singing of the national anthem before a basketball game because some player doesn’t sing or put his hand on his chest? Protect the tradition, not the violator of it. Especially someone who violated it without reason.
So Suarez and King Kenny apologized. Speaking for myself, I appreciated the initiative by Liverpool FC. Perhaps the apology was indeed a publicity stunt to recover a stark drop in Liverpool’s reputation caused by that non-handshake. Maybe Suarez and King Kenny were indeed coerced by Standard Chartered to apologize. But that’s all heresay. In any case, It should not matter to any United fan. See, none of us are entitled to an apology. Suarez and King Kenny owes nothing to any United supporter. The victim of the snubbed handshake is Evra and ONLY Evra. I would much, much rather have Suarez and Kenny apologized to Evra directly, and left the rest of the world out of it.
One trivial thing I want to note is this – certain United supporters are arguing about how Evra should get an apology from Evra about using the word Negro. Fuck that. Suarez served his ban. Justice on that matter was dealt. Leave him be on that incident. The only thing an apology is due for is the handshakegate, nothing else.
So here it is. My position. As long as I am entitled to an opinion, as a human being, to make things genuinely right and squash the ill-will once and for all, my position is that :
1) Suarez should apologize personally to Evra for snubbing the handshake. Not to us, not as a press release on the LFC website, but man to man, face to face. Lets keep things real simple here: Suarez disrespected Evra by not shaking his extended hand. Evra deserves an in-person apology for that. For me, from how my parents raised me, from my morals, that is the right thing to do. That’s what I would do if I wrongly ignored another man’s handshake.
2) Evra should also apologize to Suarez with the over-the-top celebration. While I was watching that, I admit I felt great satisfaction of rubbing the victory in Suarez’s face, not only because of the snubbed handshake, but also because Suarez had kicked the ball into the stands multiple times, and also at Evra on out-of-bounds. It was unsportsmanlike conduct at is worst, and in the heat of the moment, I was glad that Evra gave Suarez some deserved grief. But it was still wrong to do it right in front of his face. In front of our fans? Sure. In front of Suarez directly? That incites riots, and is always ill-advised for the sake of Stadium safety.
Whether what I think should happen will happen does not matter. It may happen, it may not. If it does, I will get a whole new level of respect for Suarez. If it doesn’t life goes on. At the very least, he owes Patrice Evra a handshake when we meet Liverpool next.
On a final note, regarding tribalism in football…
I’ve experienced a lot of tribalism on Liverpool and United’s part on this ordeal. And it would be remiss of me not to address it while its on my mind. Tribalism in football is a long standing subject of controversy. Tribalism is where a fan protects a player no matter what, just for the sake of protection. That’s what made Kenny do that post-match conference where he chewed out the reporter when the handshake snub was brought up. I disagree with tribalism in football. I have serious issues with it. Let me elaborate.
I retain my opinion on this controversial footballer simply based on what I’ve seen. What I’ve seen from Luis Suarez as a footballer is wonderful footballing ability and incredible penalty box skill. I’ve never hidden my admiration for his qualities as a forward. I love that he brings that kind of technical proficiency and creativity to this league. But what I’ve also seen is consistent, deliberate handballing, constant denying of clear diving and any sort of wrongdoing, biting people, kicking people, etc.
I think that it is the obligation of a proper footballing fan to acknowledge both the light side and the dark side of a footballer. I find it difficult to swallow the tribalism in football sometimes, because I could personally never trust the opinion of a fan who demonstrates tribalism. For example, take one of my favorite United players. Wayne Rooney. Rooney is a wonderful footballer, but he can be petulant, and goes to the ground too easily sometimes. Because I freely admitted his shortcomings, all while praising his strengths, people, whether it be my EA colleagues, or my friends, generally trust my opinion on footballers. EA scouted me out to rate players of FIFA for that very reason, because I said that in a United forum. In their own words, they felt that my opinion was deemed objective and trustworthy, because I was fair and honest about a player, regardless of my obvious team affiliation.
As a fan, if you want your opinion to be respected, you have to be generous with praise about what a footballer does on the pitch, but also condemn the things he shouldn’t be doing. How can I trust another fan’s opinion knowing that they won’t tell me the full truth about a player? Or worse, if I have to accept that what another fan says to protect a player as his/hers honest opinion, how am I to accept the obvious moral deficiency of that individual? As I see tribalism, or perhaps not even tribalism for that matter (maybe the entirety of Liverpool fans genuinely see nothing wrong in Suarez’s character, in which case, scousers are genuinely scum), I have to wonder, is my definition of a fair, footballing observer too idealized or glorified?
The Beautiful Game 